Marking system and method

ABSTRACT

A methodology for facilitating the identification, authentication or quality control of packaged products is described comprising a marking and an authentication phase. In the marking phase the method involves obtaining an analytical specification, and for example an analytical spectrum, of a reference chemical composition for the product; and recording the data on a machine readable data storage means provided in direct mechanical association with the packaging thereof, and for example being incorporated into or onto or as a part of such packaging. The authentication phase comprises applying a suitable data reader to the data storage means to read the recorded data and reconstruct the recorded analytical specification; chemically analysing a sample of the product to obtain a measured analytical specification; comparing the measured and recorded readings within predetermined tolerance limits. A system to perform the method and a product marked accordingly are also described.

This is a nationalization of PCT/GB04/001554 filed Apr. 13, 2004 andpublished in English.

The invention relates to a marking system and method to facilitate theidentification, authentication and quality control of packaged products,particularly but not restricted to food and food products and othersimilar organic products of complex composition. The invention is also apackaged product carrying such a marking for use in such a system and/orin accordance with such a method.

The invention relates to packaged products which are typically placed incontainers (which term is intended to encompass containers of anysuitable type) at a manufacturing or distribution centre for onwardshipping to a remote site for use, storage, consumption, sale etc.

There is a well understood general desire to be able to monitor andtrack such a product at stages in the fabrication and distributionprocess, particularly where this is a food or food product, otherproduct intended for human or animal consumption, or other product whereclose monitoring of the chemical composition and/or transit/storageconditions might be critical.

For some purposes, it might be sufficient that the product isidentified, for example on the packaging or accompanying paperwork, andassociated instructions are given regarding necessary conditions forstorage and transit, degradation times and shelf life, etc. A moresophisticated system is proposed in FR2787220, where an identificationtag is applied to the product packaging which incorporates details ofenvironmental transit or storage parameters, together with sensors ofthe same, and is able to identify when the product has been kept inunsatisfactory conditions. However, even a system such as this does not,directly, monitor the condition of the product itself. In order to dothis, the need might arise for subsequent monitoring of product, forexample by testing of samples from a batch of packaged product at apoint down the distribution line.

Such a need might arise for example for authentication purposes, forexample to check that a product is original (or at least is of originalquality, and not an inferior counterfeit) in the case of brandedproducts, products of protected denomination of origin and the like; orquality control to ensure that a product meets a quality, safety orother composition specification standard; or to check and detect whethera product has been adulterated; or to check and monitor degradation ofquality over time, by ensuring composition remains within apredetermined satisfactory range; or for various other purposes.

Various analytical techniques exist to determine the overall chemicalcomposition and/or the concentrations of particular target chemicalspecies in such a product. It is possible to carry out such analysis onrepresentative samples taken from a batch of previously packagedproducts, and to make a comparison either with standard reference orpredetermined specification data or with data collected from that batchof product prior to packaging. An assessment can be made then of whetherthe composition of a sampled product meets such predetermined parametersfor the purposes discussed above. This requires careful maintenance of apaper trail or other data record referring back to the point ofpackaging to ensure that subsequent batch sampling is matched with datarelating to the product at packaging, which for complex production anddistribution networks can become cumbersome, inefficient and slow.

There is a general desire to provide an authentication system foridentification, authentication and quality control of packaged products,which can be carried out by reference to batches of packaged productsthemselves without the need for such complex cross-referencing.

It has been suggested that some of the paper trail involved in trackingproduct can be reduced if contents information is provided on thepackaging. DE4436923 describes such a system for the transport of bulkchemicals, in which a product is analysed at themanufacturing/distribution point to within suitable purity parametersfor example, and this information is incorporated into a simple blackand white bar code. This may be encoded to give an authentication systemand offers the possibility for customs sampling and furtherauthentication at the distribution point, so as to simplify matters intransit. The code can also serve as a product identifier at the onwarddistribution point, for example ensuring that a bulk tanker delivers itsload to the correct bulk storage facility.

This concept is very much directed to bulk transport and storage, andprovides a system which is primarily intended for use in circumstanceswhere is can be assumed that the product does not undergo changes interms of quality during storage or transit, and where interference witha product in transit is unlikely to be an issue. The simple bar code issufficient for this identification and authentication role, but providesonly limited information about the product.

None of the prior art systems are satisfactory for packaged productswhere degradation over time, purity control based on batch sampling,authentication, and safeguarding against tampering, are all concerns,such as is particularly the case for the transport of food, medicinesand like items, in small packaging units packaged and transported inlarge batches from an individual packaging point. It is an object of theinvention to provide a methodology and system to facilitate theidentification, authentication or quality control of such packagedproducts in a simple and self-contained manner and which mitigates someor all the disadvantages of the above systems.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention in a first aspect in itsmost comprehensive concept the invention comprises a methodology forfacilitating the identification, authentication or quality control ofpackaged products, which methodology comprises:

in a first marking phase:

-   obtaining data representative of an analytical specification of a    chemical composition for the product;-   processing and recording the data on a machine readable data storage    means provided in association with the packaged product, in    particular in direct mechanical association with the packaging    thereof, and for example being incorporated into or onto or as a    part of such packaging;    and in a second authentication phase:-   applying a suitable data reader to the data storage means to read    the recorded data and reconstruct the recorded analytical    specification;-   chemically analysing a sample of the product to obtain data    representative of an analytical specification of the chemical    composition for the product;-   comparing the results of the said analysis with the reconstructed    recorded analytical specification within predetermined tolerance    limits.

Making this comparison allows an assessment to be made of measuredanalytical data from a sample taken from a packaged product againstreference data contained in or on or in direct association with thepackage. The reference data represents at least an analyticalspecification of a predetermined desired composition of the product,recorded in direct association with the packaging at the point ofpackaging, and against which the subsequently measured analyticalspecification can be compared. It is not necessary to refer back in anyway to other sources of information. A rapid assessment of whether thecomposition of the packaged product is within tolerance limits of adesired composition range can be made, for example to check itsauthenticity, to check its quality, to ensure it has not beenadulterated or has otherwise degraded etc., can be carried out withreference to the packaged product alone. A simple, rapid and automaticscreening system for such products is therefore provided.

The key to the invention is that what is recorded at the marking phasecomprises a substantially full analytical specification, which is thenrecorded on the packaging in a manner which enables it to bereconstructed at the authentication phase. The analytical specificationdoes not merely constitute selected data points relating for example tocharacteristic peaks in an analysis. Rather, an analytical technique isused which obtains varying intensity data across a spectrum or otherrange, with the intensity distribution across the spectrum or rangebeing characteristic of the chemical composition of the product. Inaccordance with the invention, reference is made to the recordal of suchan analytical specification, by which is meant a recordal of distributedintensity data across the range, rather than merely a recordal of dataabout the presence of particular characteristic peaks or the like.

It is this recordal of an analytical specification of varying intensityinformation across the spectral or other analytical range that is thekey to the invention. By recording such a specification in a machinereadable manner on the packaging, it is possible to reconstruct at aremote site, purely from the recordal on the packaging, the analyticalspecification representative of the contents of the packaging. This canbe compared with a corresponding analytical specification (eithergenerated using the same technique, or by using another technique andmaking suitable conversion to allow for such comparison) withinpredetermined tolerance limits to compare the actual and expectedcomposition and assess authenticity, monitor degradation etc.

The machine readable recorded data comprises an indication of anexpected result for the subsequent chemical analysis step. If thisexpected result corresponds, within predetermined tolerance limits, tothe measured result when a sample is subsequently taken, a batch sotested may be passed. If the comparison reveals that the measured resultis outside such tolerance limits, the batch may be rejected and/orpassed on for more detailed analysis or other further processing.

It will be apparent that this reference data could be obtained in anumber of ways. Reference data might be representative of establishedcomposition or specifications. Reference data might includecompositional information obtained from periodic testing of the productto be packaged. This may be irregular representative testing, orspecific testing of each batch, such that the recorded reference datacorresponds to an analytical specification particular to the productwithin a particular package. Reference data may include combinations ofthe foregoing. The reference data includes at least an analyticalspecification as described representative of a predetermined desiredcomposition which can be reconstructed for comparison with a subsequentmeasured analytical specification obtained as above, and may includefurther information.

In a particular preferred embodiment the reference data is obtained bytesting of a representative sample for each product or batch of productsat the time of packaging. Thus, in the preferred embodiment, the markingphase of the methodology is modified to comprise the step of analysing asample of the product, prior to or during packaging, to obtain referencerepresentative at least of an analytical specification of the sampledcomposition, and thus indicative of a predetermined desired chemicalcomposition for the batch of product, and the step of processing andrecording the data on a machine readable data storage means provided indirect mechanical association with each product or unit of the batch ofpackaged product. In other words, the package is marked with apredetermined desired chemical composition based upon specific samplingof the actual chemical composition of the product or a sample thereof atthe point of packaging and on the analytical specification generatedthereby.

It follows that the authentication phase of the methodology ispreferably modified to comprise the step of repeating the chemicalanalysis of the above marking phase to obtain data representative of ananalytic specification of the actual chemical composition for theproduct. The comparison step then involves reading and reconstructingthe first analytical specification, corresponding to that measured bysampling at the point of packaging and deemed to be the desiredspecification, and comparing this with the second measured specificationat the point of testing within predetermined tolerance limits.

It will be understood that the overall methodology includes a markingphase and an authentication phase which are likely to be carried outremotely from each other in space and time, and independently.Accordingly, the invention in a further aspect comprises a markingmethod to facilitate the identification authentication or qualitycontrol of packaged products, and in a yet further aspect comprises anauthentication method for the identification, authentication or qualitycontrol of packaged products marked in accordance with the foregoing,the respective aspects of the invention comprising the marking phase andauthentication phase as above described performed independently.

The analysis method comprises any known method of chemical analysissuitable for obtaining data representative of the composition, oraspects thereof, of the product in question. Particularly preferred areanalysis methods which generate data that can be easily processed andstored in a suitably reconstructable form. It is desirable for theanalysis method to be repeatable, and to be relatively independent oftest conditions, to ensure consistency of results regardless of wherethe test is performed, and hence accuracy of comparison of measuredanalysis data with recorded reference data when the analysis step iscarried out by a number of different users at a number of remote sites.

It will be understood that a necessary feature of the analysis method isthat it gives a two dimensional data response, in the sense thatvariable intensity data can be referenced against a test parameteracross a range of values. It is this two dimensional specification whichis recorded on the packaging and can then be reconstructed for thecomparison phase. It is will of course be understood that references toreconstructing this specification do not imply the need for any realphysical reconstruction of a representation of the specification, butmerely imply that the data is made available by the data reader, forexample through suitable comparison software, to be compared with acorresponding measured specification at the test phase.

In a preferred embodiment, the analysis method comprises a method ofobtaining a spectrum representative of the chemical composition of theproduct, wherein intensity data varies across a range of frequencies.

In a preferred embodiment, nuclear magnetic resonance is used for theanalysis step during the authentication phase. More preferably, nuclearmagnetic resonance is also used to provide an analysis of the sample tocreate reference data during the marking phase. However, it will beunderstood that any other suitable technique which produces thenecessary map of quantifiable variable intensity data functionallyrelated to compositional data could be considered, including withoutlimitation mass spectroscopy, UV spectroscopy and the like.

The invention relies on the creation of reference data that is thenrecorded in machine readable form in direct association with thepackaging. Moreover, the reference data is not merely a limited andarbitrary set of discrete items of characteristic data. Rather, thereference data comprises data from which a substantive analyticalspecification, for example in the form of an analytical spectrum orother range map with variable intensity information, can bereconstructed. In accordance with the invention reference data includesat least one such two-dimensional analytical specification with mappedintensity data.

In the preferred embodiment, this reference data is obtained by batchanalysis of the product to be packaged, for example during manufactureor otherwise prior to or during packaging. The reference data mayoptionally further include additional compositional or other dataderived from standards, reference specifications, predeterminedtolerance parameters and the like.

The reference data produced by this analysis step and/or obtainedotherwise from reference or specification sources is collected andprocessed to convert raw chemical composition data into a recordable,readable and processable form. This includes at least the conversion ofan analytical specification as hereinbefore defined into a recordable,readable and reconstructable form.

In particular, this stage might be carried out under the control ofsuitable computer software or a suitably programmed computer, forexample comprising the steps of collecting raw analysis data and/orreference data from reference or specification sources, digitizing thedata, transferring the digitized data to the input of a suitable dataprocessor, processing the data as described and outputting the processeddata in a form suitable to be recorded on the data storage means and/orto provide a set of instructions for the fabrication of a data storagemeans such that the data is readable thereon.

The data storage means serves as a record of the reference data. Itprovides a machine readable digital data source in direct associationwith the packaged product to avoid the need for an extensive paper trailand to ensure that a simple testing and screening process can be carriedout with reference to the packaged product alone and without referenceto extraneous information sources.

A range of potentially suitable data storage means will suggestthemselves, and will include optically, electronically and magneticallyreadable devices and/or areas on or comprised as part of the packaging.Suitable reference data storage means might include magnetic strips,smart chips etc., and optically readable areas, in particular in apreferred embodiment comprising optical areas of light and dark markingsand/or colour and/or grey shade markings in one or two dimensions, suchas bar codes or the like.

Precise details of the data storage system are not pertinent to theinvention, the principal requirement being that the data storage systemis capable of storing an analytical specification as hereinbeforedefined in a form which allows the specification to be reconstructed ata subsequent test phase with sufficient resolution to allow foreffective comparison. Within this general resolution requirement, thedata storage means may store the analytical specification data inanalogue or digital form in any suitable readable manner.

For many applications, optionally readable markings such as bar codeswill be particularly preferred. Bar codes and bar code readers arefamiliar in relation to packaged food and similar products, which shouldfacilitate use of the system in accordance with the invention. However,conventional bar code readers deal primarily with simple black and whiteoptical coding systems. Such systems might enable storage of some simplecompositional data, for example relating to certain set compositionparameters, or to a small number of pre-selected peak intensities froman analytic spectrum, but will not lend themselves to the recordal offully reproducible analytical specifications, which is the essence ofthe present invention. Accordingly, the optically readable markings suchas a bar code which is intended to be used in accordance with theinvention will preferably be a graduated scale marking, wherein data isstored not merely by the presence or absence of a mark in apredetermined region within the marking, but by the position and also bythe intensity, shade, tone, colour, hue etc. In particular, the markingis an optically readable grey-scale marking in which the degree of greyshading also carries information.

Such markings lend themselves particularly to the representation of ananalytical specification as defined in accordance with the invention.The analytical specification comprises intensity data mapped across ameasured range, for example an intensity spectrum mapped againstfrequency. Such an analytical specification transfer readily on to asimple linear optical marking, for example in that position on themarking corresponds functionally to frequency or the like, and in thatthe shading, tone, colour, hue etc. of the marking at that positioncorresponds functionally to intensity at that point in the range. Inrelation to the preferred analysis method using a NMR spectrum, datatransfers particularly effectively to a linear grey-scale bar code,which is accordingly especially preferred.

A single linear bar code or other optically readable structure may beused. Alternatively, a plurality of bar codes or other structures may beprovided for example to give measurement of different compositionalaspects and/or of expected compositions varying with time in store, togive a representation of shelf life or similar. More complex opticallyreadable structures, for example comprising multiple sub-structuresand/or having two-dimensional extent can be considered to give moreinformation.

The reference data may be stored on the data storage means in directlyreadable form, or in an encrypted or otherwise secure form.

In the authentication phase, the reference data is read by a suitablereader, which depending on the data storage means might include amagnetic strip scanner, a smart chip reader, an optical data reader suchas a bar code reader or the like. As has been noted, optical readerssuch as bar code readers are particularly preferred, being simple andeffective, and being systems which are already familiar in relation topackaged products of this type. However, it will be understood thatsimple black and white bar codes are unlikely to be suitable for theinvention and that the graduated scale bar codes which will be preferredwill need suitably modified readers.

An analysis step is carried out using a suitable chemical analysismethod, such as NMR to generate a measured analytical specification. Thereference data has been created with the intention of being referable tothis analysis step, and in particular has been created by the previouscarrying out of an equivalent analysis step on a sample of the packagedproduct to generate an equivalent analytical specification. A comparisonis then made of the results of the analysis to the predeterminedreference data specification within predetermined tolerances. Thiscomparison step in particular is carried out automatically by ananalysis system, for example by passing analysis data for the measuredspecification to a comparator, which conveniently comprises theprocessor of a suitably programmed computer, reconstructing thereference specification making the comparison, and outputting theresults in an operator readable form. In an optional further step, theresult is displayed, for example by visual and/or audio visual displaymeans.

Comparison is made within predetermined tolerance limits, for example tojudge quality or acceptability on a pass/fail basis. These tolerancelimits may be stored as part of the reference data, may be pre-recordedwithin the comparator, or may be input by or otherwise applied by a userat the comparison stage. In addition to a reference analyticalspecification the reference data may include a series of tolerancelimits and/or a plurality of reference composition ranges correspondingfor example to different levels of product degradation, so that thesystem can give an indication of shelf life or similar.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention a system for theidentification, authentication and quality control of packaged productscomprises:

-   a machine readable data storage means provided in association with    the packaged product, in particular in direct mechanical association    with the packaging thereof, and for example being incorporated into    or onto or as a part of such packaging;-   a marking device for processing data representative of an analytical    specification of a chemical composition for the product and    recording the data on the data storage means in readable form;-   an authentication device comprising a suitable data reader to read    the recorded data on the data storage means and reconstruct the    analytical specification;-   a chemical analyzer to perform a subsequent analysis of a sample of    the product to obtain data representative of an analytical    specification of the actual chemical composition for the product;-   a means to compare the results of the said analysis with the    recorded specification within predetermined tolerance limits.

As before, it will be understood that the marking and authenticationprocesses are likely to be carried out remotely from each other in spaceand time, and independently. Accordingly, the invention in a furtheraspect comprises a marking system as above described to facilitate theidentification authentication or quality control of packaged products,and in a yet further aspect comprises an authentication system as abovedescribed for the identification, authentication or quality control ofpackaged products marked in accordance with the foregoing.

Preferably, the marking system will be provided in association with achemical analyzer, conveniently to carry out an identical analysis tothat carried out by the authentication system, to analyse a sample ofthe product to obtain the said analytical specification for the productprior to or during packaging, and data processing means to collect andprocess the data and convert to a reference mark for application by themarking system.

Optionally, the authentication system includes display means to displaya result to a user. This may take the form of an alphanumeric display,coloured lights, sounds and alarms etc. in any suitable combination.Since the system is primarily intended as a screen it will often besufficient that the display is adapted to display one of a small numberof discreet results, and in particular to display a pass/fail result.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a marked packagedproduct to facilitate identification, authentication and quality controlof the contents thereof comprises a product retained within a containerand having in direct physical association with the container and forexample on or comprising a part thereof, a machine readable referencemark incorporating pre-recorded data comprising a reconstructableanalytical specification indicative of the expected chemical compositionof the product, and in particular pre-recorded data relating to areconstructable analytical specification of the chemical composition ofa batch sample associated with the product.

The invention is applicable to any contained chemical product wherethere might be a desire to track composition and detect changes incomposition for any of the reasons set out herein above, for example inrelation to concerns about authenticity, maintenance of qualityspecifications, adulteration, degradation over time etc. The inventionis particularly applicable to food, food products and the like. It isalso suited to other products for human or animal consumption or usewhere similar safety issues arise, such as pharmaceutical and cosmeticproducts. It is also suited for use with other products where similarquality control and specification issues arise, such as fine chemicaland agrochemical liquids.

References herein above to packaged products cover any such productswhen placed in any suitable containers for onward distribution orstorage and the like, including consumer products in bottles, cartons,jars, packets, sachets etc., and contained products contained forstorage or shipping on a larger scales in barrels, vats, tanks etc.

In all such cases, the present invention provides a convenient andeffective means to batch sample and screen remotely distributed orstored packaged products themselves by virtue of information stored indirect association with the packaged product and without requiringreference to any extraneous information sources.

The invention will now be described by way of example only withreference to FIGS. 1 to 2 of the accompanying drawing, wherein

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a bar code marking suitable to beincorporated into the packaging of a packaged product to put theforegoing invention into practice;

FIG. 2 is a flow-chart representation of an embodiment of the process ofthe invention, employing a bar code marking as illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 illustrates an NMR bar code generated as a greyscale projectionof a 1D 1 H NMR spectrum. The depth of colour is directly proportionalto the peak intensities of the NMR spectrum, so by scanning the bar codethe NMR spectrum can easily be reconstituted. The NMR bar code isrepresentative of reference data for the product, and is mostconveniently obtained by NMR analysis of a sample of product before orduring packaging, using conventional NMR apparatus.

By associating this bar code with a target product, such as a protecteddenomination of origin or branded product, perhaps as part of thepackaging, it would be relatively straightforward to confirm that whatis in the packet produces the same NMR profile as that defined by thisbar code. This can be done by repeating the NMR analysis of a sample ofpackaged product using conventional NMR apparatus for example at aremote site.

The actual result is compared with the expected result provided by thebar code in direct association with the product to ensure correspondencewithin reasonable tolerances. It becomes possible simply and quickly andwithout external reference for example to check that a product isoriginal (or at least is of original quality), to ensure that a productmeets a quality, safety or other composition specification standard orto check and detect whether a product has been adulterated.

Another possible use is to confirm the age of a product. Multiple NMRspectra of a perishable product can easily be stored as a bar code witha similar depth as the one above. By matching the profile of the productinside the packaging to a time course of expected profiles from aparticular product it should be possible to estimate the approximate ageof the product.

FIG. 2 illustrates a possible embodiment of the process in greaterdetail. The figure shows a flow diagram illustrating the processes thatare required to realize an embodiment of the invention.

The left hand side of FIG. 2 illustrates the process that will occur atthe point of origin for a particular product. Initial batch samplingwill involve removing a number of aliquots of the product directly fromthe production line immediately prior to packaging the product. Thenumber of aliquots that are taken will be sufficient to describe thenatural range of variation in the chemical specification of the product.This will be determined by previous homogeneity testing of the batchproduction process to ensure that the specification derived for aparticular product is wholly representative of the matrix underinvestigation.

The product will then be subjected to chemical analysis. In the examplegiven in FIG. 2, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is used togenerate the chemical specification. The chemical specification of theproduct is defined by compositional characteristics of the product forwhich a specification is to be determined e.g. the concentration of thecompounds that are present in the product. Further, the chemicalspecification will be converted into a machine-readable format.

The example in FIG. 2 is that of a greyscale barcode such as isillustrated in FIG. 1. This has been calculated using a quadraticfunction in which the shade at an individual position within the barcodeis calculated from the intensity of the data representing the analyticalspecification. The example clearly demonstrates the correlation betweenthe NMR spectral intensity and the shading in the barcode. The moreintense NMR resonances are depicted as light shades or white and the lowintensity NMR resonances are depicted as dark grey or black. Thequadratic function used to calculate the precise shade of the barcodehas been determined to give good contract using the range of intensitiespresent in the NMR data.

Once the machine-readable product specification (e.g. barcode) has beenconstructed. it is incorporated within the packaging of the product.This is positioned such that it cannot be changed without evidence oftampering (e.g. on the reverse of a product label), and also is in sucha position as to be accessible without the need to remove the productfrom its packaging. The product can be packaged and distributed in thenormal fashion.

The second stage of the process described herein will be performed aftera product has been released from its point of origin, and is illustratedon the right of the figure. The aim of the second stage of the processis to determine whether a product meets the specification determined atthe point of origin. Reasons for this not being the case may includesubstitution of a product with inferior goods and duplication oforiginal packaging material, or mistreatment resulting in prematureaging of the product. Initially, the whole packaged produce will beretrieved, possibly from a retail outlet, depot or whilst in transit.The product specification is then retrieved from the packing using anautomatic data-reading device. This device will convert the productspecification stored on the packaging of the product into a form thatwill enable reconstruction of the original chemical specification of theproduct determined at the point of origin for that product. Using theexample given in FIG. 2, an optical reader, such as an infra-red scannercan be used to electronically reconstruct the barcode that is attachedto the product.

Once the product specification has been read from the packaging, theoriginal chemical specification (e.g. the NMR data) can be reconstructedby applying the inverse quadratic function to that which was applied tothe chemical specification to convert it into machine-readable format,to the machine-readable data.

The product is then removed from the packaging. Aliquots of the productare taken and these are subjected to the same analysis that wasperformed when the product was originally packaged. The data derivedfrom this analysis is then compared to that obtained from the packaging.Suitable algorithms (e.g. Pearson's correlation coefficient) are used togenerate a similarity score to determine the likelihood that the productcontained within the packaging meets the specification defined on thepackage. Using predefined limits of acceptance or rejection, the productis accepted as meeting the specification defined at the point of origin,or rejected as failing to meet the specification defined at the point oforigin.

1. A method for facilitating the identification, authentication or quality control of packaged products, which methodology comprises: in a first marking phase: obtaining data representative of an analytical specification of a chemical composition for the product; processing and recording the data on a machine readable data storage means provided in direct mechanical association with the packaged product; and in a second authentication phase: applying a suitable data reader to the data storage means to read the recorded data and reconstruct the recorded analytical specification; chemically analysing a sample of the product to obtain data representative of an analytical specification of the actual chemical composition for the product; comparing the results of the said analysis with the recorded readings within predetermined tolerance limits to determine whether the packaged product meets the recorded analytical specification so as to identify, authenticate, or achieve quality control over, the packaged product.
 2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the data storage means is incorporated into or onto or as a part of the packaging.
 3. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the same analysis method is used to generate a reference analytical specification to create reference data during the marking phase and to generate a measured analytical specification during the authentication phase.
 4. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein reference data is recorded further including additional compositional data derived from standards, reference specifications, predetermined tolerance parameters and the like.
 5. A method in accordance with claim 1 comprising the marking phase being performed independently of the authentication phase.
 6. A method in accordance with claim 1 comprising the authentication phase being performed independently of the marking phase.
 7. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein an analytical specification is generated by an analysis method comprising a method of obtaining a spectrum representative of the chemical composition of the product, wherein intensity data varies across a range of frequencies.
 8. A method in accordance with claim 7 wherein an analytical spectrum is generated by nuclear magnetic resonance.
 9. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the analytical spectrum is obtained by batch analysis of the product to be packaged, for example during manufacture or otherwise prior to or during packaging.
 10. A method in accordance with claim 9 wherein the analytical spectrum is obtained by testing of a representative sample for each product or batch of products at the time of packaging, the marking phase of the methodology thus comprising the step of analysing a sample of the product, prior to or during packaging, to obtain data representative of at least of an analytical specification of the sampled composition, and thus indicative of a predetermined desired chemical composition for the batch of product, and the step of processing and recording the data on a machine readable data storage means provided in direct mechanical association with each product or unit of the batch of packaged product.
 11. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the analytical specification comprises a two-dimensional range map of variable intensity information referenced against a test parameter across a range of values.
 12. A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein the analytical specification comprises an analytical spectrum of variable intensity information referenced across a frequency range.
 13. A method in accordance with claim 12 wherein the authentication phase of the methodology is modified to comprise the step of repeating the chemical analysis of the above marking phase to obtain data representative of an analytical specification of the actual chemical composition for the product.
 14. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the data storage means comprise optically, electronically and magnetically readable devices and/or areas on or comprised as part of the packaging.
 15. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein the data is stored on data storage means comprising optically readable areas having a graduated scale such that data is stored by the position and also by the intensity, shade, tone, colour, hue or the like of an optically readable mark.
 16. A method in accordance with claim 15 wherein the analytical specification comprises intensity data mapped across a measured analytical range, and is recorded such that position on the marking corresponds to the range, and in that the shading, tone, colour, hue or the like corresponds to intensity.
 17. A method in accordance with claim 15 wherein the data storage means comprises an optically readable grey-scale marking.
 18. A system for the identification, authentication and quality control of packaged products comprising: a marking system comprising: a machine readable data storage means provided in direct mechanical association with the packaged product, in particular being incorporated into or onto or as a part of such packaging; and a marking device for processing data representative of an analytical specification of a chemical composition for the product and recording the data on the data storage means in readable form; an authentication system comprising: an authentication device comprising a suitable data reader to read the recorded data on the data storage means and reconstruct the analytical specification; and a chemical analyzer to perform a subsequent analysis of a sample of the product to obtain data representative of aspects of the actual chemical composition for the product; and a means to compare the results of the said analysis with the recorded specification within predetermined tolerance limits to determine whether the packaged product meets the recorded analytical specification so as to identify, authenticate, or achieve quality control over, the packaged product.
 19. A system in accordance with claim 18 wherein the marking system is provided in association with a chemical analyzer adapted to carry out an identical analysis to that carried out by the authentication system, to analyse a sample of the product to obtain the said analytical specification prior to or during packaging, and data processing means to collect and process the data and convert to a reference mark for application by the marking system.
 20. A system in accordance with claim 18 wherein the authentication system includes display means to display a result to a user. 